11 quotes
During the war he was an airman and slaughtered civilians from on high.
Pseudo (1976)
Gari in Russian means "burn!"… I want to test myself, a trial by fire, so that my I is burned off.
La Nuit Sera Calme [The Night Will Be Calm (1974)
A writer’s subconscious is one of the filthiest places there are: as a matter of fact, you can find the whole world there.
The Dance of Genghis Cohn (1967)
To renew myself, to relive, to be someone else, was always the great temptation of my existence.
When a war is won, it's the losers, not the winners, who are liberated.
Tulipe (1946)
Humour is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.
The Harper Book of Quotations (1993)
There is more to Jewish history than Auschwitz.
Interview (1970)
Disease-carrying thoughts swarm and multiply in the dark and twisted labyrinths of our minds, and all that is needed is a mob and a good political slogan for the epidemic to be spread once again, with a burst of automatic weapons or a mushroom cloud.
Introduction to The Plague (1946)
There have undoubtedly been more worthy and noble last words in history than ‘Kiss my ass,’ but I have never made any claim to greatness and, besides, I’m quite pleased with my effort…
The bombs I dropped on Germany between 1940 and 1944 maybe killed a Rilke or a Goethe or a Hölderin in his cradle. And yes, of course, if it had to be done over, I would do it again. Hitler had condemned us to kill. Not even the most just causes are ever innocent.
The gossip that came back to me from fashionable dinners where people pitied poor Romain Gary, who must be a little sad, a little jealous of the meteoric rise in the literary firmament of his cousin Emile Ajar… I’ve had a lot of fun. Good-bye, and thank you.
The Life and Death of Émile Ajar (1980)